Cannon Fodder

 ( Electronic Arts Franchises ) 

The games are split into several missions, which are usually sub-divided into phases. Dead soldiers are replaced by new ones at the start of each phase. Each soldier that survives a mission is promoted and receives a small increase in the rate of fire, accuracy, and range. The player is only able to save the game upon completion of a whole mission. Each phase is structured around mission objectives which range from "Kill all enemies" or "Destroy enemy buildings" to "Rescue all hostages". Some phases are complex, and require the player to use their imagination, pre-planning and strategy. For example, players may have to split their team into two or more groups and leave one group to defend an area or route, assigning its control to the game's artificial intelligence, while taking control of another group.

The pre-mission screen shows a hill with a grave for each dead soldier, with Army recruit lining up in front of it and a sports-like score at the top of the screen. Soldiers each have unique names, while on the grand scale of things being nothing more than interchangeable cannon fodder. The game has hundreds of individually named recruits, of which the first few—Jools Jameson, Jon Hare, Stoo and Richard Joseph—were named directly after the development staff. As each recruit is killed in battle, he receives a tombstone on the hill and the next recruit in line takes his place.

Cannon Fodder 2 introduced a variety of new settings: a conflict, an alien planet and spacecraft, the Middle Ages and gangster-themed Chicago. It nevertheless retained the same mechanics and gameplay. In the new settings, troops wielding grenades and rockets were replaced by such units as aliens and wizards, but nonetheless behaved in the same manner, as did battering rams representing trucks and so forth. The game was more difficult than its predecessor, employing puzzle elements such as multiple ways—of varying effectiveness—to solve levels. It featured reduced use of water obstacles but retained mines and booby traps.

Cannon Fodder 3 featured a military, counter-terrorism theme with more advanced weather settings. It retained grenades and rockets as the central secondary weapons and introduced further . It expanded the selection of vehicles and added further enemy installations such as sniper towers. It also features an online cooperative mode.

Shot over just one day and for a total budget of Pound sterling500, it featured the entire team dressed up in military uniforms, an assortment of masks (including one of Mario and Donald Duck) and toy guns. The version of the music track is more complete than the one that appeared on the 16-bit versions and was recorded professionally. In fact, the menu screen track is also a pared down version of a proper song, featuring studio-standard vocals. Both of these tracks were written and performed by Jon Hare, as were many of the other songs featured in Sensible's games.

Amiga magazines rated the game positively, widely awarding scores of over 90%, while Amiga Action awarded an unprecedented score, calling it the best game of the year.Steve McNally, Amiga Action (issue 53, Jan 1994), pp. 24-25 Critics praised the fun, addictiveness, music and humour of the game. The game also drew criticism in the Daily Star for its juxtaposition of war and humour and its use of iconography closely resembling the remembrance poppy.Jonathan Guy, Daily Star, 26 Oct 1993

In 2004, Jon Hare set up a small mobile phone games team known as Tower Studios. Their first release was Sensible Soccer in 2004, followed by Cannon Fodder in 2005. Both titles were published by Kuju Entertainment. The games were only playable on certain color models and, due to many keypads' inability to register a diagonal movement, the control systems for both games had to be radically redesigned.